Trans am fun and some shit luck
 

Had a hell of a weekend at Sonoma this past weekend, started out with way too much work on a Lambo to get the setup dialed in, driver wanted it way too stiff, we softened it significantly throughout the weekend, although it was all for nothing when he went for the win in turn 1, lap 1 on cold tires while sawing at the wheels. I'm not too disappointed at the wreck, he gave me a quali setup from some other Lambo team that I copied to a T, and he then ignored my advice and his coach's advice on making it more compliant. What can you do.

For those of you that don't know, Trans Am these days is focused around their TA2 cars, if anyone has a chance to drive one, they're amazing machines. Simple, fast, and easy to work on. Trans Am also allows all sorts of other cars to enter, with their GT, SGT, and XGT classes. GT is a great fit for GT4 cars, although we had some fun with a Miata last year, SGT is slightly faster, and XGT is for GT3 cars like the lambo.



While the shop I work at was down here along with a dozen other guys, my boss was testing our two GLTC cars at The Ridge in Washington. He parked the truck/trailer outside our shop that night, and it was promptly stolen over night by some ass hats.

So, some cool video to watch, and a plead for all y'all to look out for these two unique machines, they were finally finished and ready for testing after about a years worth of work on both of them. I know they're probably stripped and trashed by now, but it's work a shot.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...868e28d125.jpg
E46 wrapped
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...8fb62196ce.jpg
E90 wrapped
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1782ff492e.jpg
E46 before wrap
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ba79f1949e.jpg
E90 before wrap

First off, f*ck. So bummed to hear those cars are gone, especially after all the work that went into both of them. Breaking or crashing a car is one thing, but I can't even imagine losing one to thieves. Was stoked to see them in person at WSIR this weekend.

On another note, how did that driver wind up behind the wheel of a Lambo race car? Sounds like a lot of freshman maneuvers for racing at a level that'd take a long time to work your way up to. Maybe I just don't have the full picture. Or maybe the answer is right in front of my face and the guy just has a lot of money.
I'm imagining the driver as the antagonist who drove the Lambo in the recent Gran Turismo movie. Heh.

Jesus Christ, Curly, this is heartbreaking. I really hope the cars show up somewhere.

It's far more common than you think. Rearden and some of the other teams that run well-prepped cars in NASA basically operate as arrive-and-drive setups for people who just want to cut a check and feel like a professional. Some of those people are qualified, and others are just in that car to stoke their ego.

Kinda what I figured. Makes sense, fielding race cars isn't cheap. The money's gotta come from somewhere.

He’s actually a decent driver, race craft is probably questionable though, just needs more experience. Really fast in quali. He started with a McLaren 570s, upgraded to the lambo to have a more serious race car. McLaren is really just their street car with Penskes. But yes, lots of money. A weekend like this costs around $40k, not including the totaled Lambo.

thanks for the sympathy on the two BMWs, it’s rough. They were so nice, one of them never even had a chance to race. People that did this deserve a painful and prolonged death.

Yeah, I was at a race once where a team with a name most people here would probably recognize was running a car in two different classes with different drivers (thus in different groups). One of the drivers was a direct team member, the other was an arrive-and-driver. I chatted with the second guy at one point, and he said something like "Oh, I don't OWN race cars, it's so much better to rent them". He was about 5-6 seconds a lap slower than the direct team member in the same car...

--Ian

Glad I asked. Didn't want to jump to conclusions. Must be nice though hah.